The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Daulatabad to Ahmedabad!

(One
finds an uncanny resemblance between the rule of Muhammad-bin-Tughluq and the
present rulers of the country!)

There
is a popular saying that the History repeats itself. Muhammad-bin-Tughluq ruled
Delhi from 1325 A.D. to 1351 A.D. After Allaudin Khilji he is supposed to have
been the greatest Sultan of Delhi. He is fondly remembered for his bold
experiments and innovative thought in many fields especially in administration
and agriculture. He is supposed to have been one of the most remarkable rulers
of his time. He was highly educated and very well knew both the Arabic and
Persian languages. He was very adept in the subjects of religion, philosophy,
astronomy, mathematics, medicine and logic. He was also very good at
calligraphy.

Even
though the Sultan had good knowledge yet he had certain weaknesses. He was very
impatient and hasty due to which many of his experiments failed. After the
death of his father he ascended the throne in Delhi after declaring himself
Sultan in Tughlaqabad where he stayed for forty days. On his arrival in Delhi
he was greeted by the nobles and crowned in the Red Palace of Balban. Because of
the expectations of the people, he started taking bold measures in different
fields. First was revenue assessment to make a correct tabulation of the income
and expenditure in the country. For this he set up a separate office. The idea
was to have a uniform standard of revenue.

However,
the first wrong step was increase in the taxation in Doab Region. Even though
the area was very fertile yet the farmers were already paying half the produce
as tax. Also the increase came when the area was on the verge of famine. He
took harsh measures to recover the tax due to which farmers ran away from their
villages and some even went to jungles to join dacoits. In order to bring some
improvements in agriculture, he set up a department of agriculture called the
Diwan-i-kohi. A large number of peasants were engaged for cultivation. However,
even this project also failed. The reason was the land chosen for cultivation
was not fertile and the officers lacked experience. The result was again a
disaster.

His
most known ill-conceived action was the transfer of capital from Delhi to
Devagari (Daulatabad). He felt that it was not possible to control southern
states from Delhi. Devagari was more central and had been a base for the
expansion of Turkish rule in India. Moreover, Delhi was very prone to Mongol
invasions. Deavagari being situated in centre was more suitable for South and
North administration. He ordered people of Delhi to shift to Davagari. It was a
nightmare for the people. However, after spending two years there, he realized
as he could not control South from Delhi, similarly he could not control North
from Daulatabad. He had no option but to shift the capital back to Delhi! It
was at a huge cost both in terms of the discomfort to the people and
unnecessary expenditure.

Another
bold but disastrous step was introduction of a new currency. Before
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq the rulers depended upon gold and silver coins. However,
during his time huge amount of currency was required for various measures and
experimental steps. There was not enough gold and silver available. So he
ordered making of token currency of bronze coins. However, soon people started
making these coins at home and a huge quantity of these forged coins entered
everywhere. Tughlaq failed to stop the proliferation of the forged coins and
had no alternative but to withdraw the same. Finally, the Sultan made
preparations for two expeditions, one to Khurassan and the other to Karajal.
Both had to be abandoned at a huge cost. It was because of these failures he
has been called a Mad Sultan!

In
the present context, some similar steps were taken which refresh the memory of
the Sultan. The intention as evident from various pronouncements was good.
These included “Ache Din”, “Sab ka saath, sab ka vikas” and so on. However, the
hasty implementation created untold problems.The most important is the change in currency which is these days called
the “demonetization”! This sudden and unannounced step created immense
difficulties especially for the poor. The withdrawal of the major portion of
the currency in circulation consisting of the high denomination notes created a
chaos especially among the lower strata of the population. This was because of
the curbs on withdrawal of currency and shortage of small denomination notes.
The worst affected were the farmers and the daily wage earners. The intention
as projected was to end black money in the country and stop fake currency as
well as prevent use of currency for terror acts. However, according to
information 97% of these high denomination notes were deposited in the banks.
So where was the black money? There were also instances of the new notes being
made by forgers. The cash crunch created havoc and reportedly over a hundred
people died while standing in queues before ATMs to get their own money! As
regards overall economy, it also received a jolt. The rupee had a substantial
fall in the international market. A number of economists described the step as
robbery against the poor people while the corporates remained unaffected.

As
regards shifting of the capital, it is happening in a different way. Gujarat
with Ahmedabad as its capital is becoming new destination for corporates and
multinationals. With the state government giving every possible facility, the
investments in Gujarat are in billions of dollars. If not politically, but
economically it will be soon India’s capital. NaMo may try his best to give
shape to his ideas to make India one of the best advanced and developed countries
but he is being pulled down by his Hindutva baggage. The most recent is Mohan
Bhagwat’s declaration that everyone born in India is a “Hindu”!

Muhammad
Tughluq was ultimately pulled down by his two disastrous expeditions. Well, in
the present case, the “Surgical Strikes” may ultimately prove to be the
nemesis. These did not achieve anything but created a tense atmosphere of
hostility and enmity which is not good for the economic development intended to
make India a welfare state. The resemblance to the earlier historical period
makes one feel quite uncomfortable and there is no choice but to keep the
fingers crossed and hope for the best!